The Woodbender
by Captain Ash
Summary: Meet Naruto Uzumaki, fresh off the boat from Konoha and ready to make it big in Republic City which isn't as easy as it sounds. But when you happen to be the world's best woodbender, and have a faithful if not mischievous nine-tailed kitsune for a pet, anything's possible!
1. Chapter 1

The Woodbender

Legend of Korra and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon. Naruto and all related characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto

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It was a sunny day as a ship pulled into the docks of Republic City. The sailors rushed about their work, securing lines and making sure it was safe for the passengers to get off. One of the sailors noticed a boy sleeping on a deck chair. He looked to be 16 and had spiky yellow hair with three marks across each cheek that resembled whiskers. He wore a dark orange headband, an orange t-shirt, a black jacket and pants, with black sandals, and had a small crystal necklace around his neck. Laying across his stomach was a nine-tailed kitsune with red-orange fur.

"Hey kid wake up! It's time to get off!" The sailor said as the boy opened his eyes, revealing them to be cerulean blue. He stretched and sat up, causing the kitsune to fall off his stomach. The fox looked up at the boy, red eyes glaring at him, causing the boy to say,

"Sorry Kurama." The fox turned it's nose up at him and walked to the stairway off the ship.

"Now he's gonna be in a bad mood all day." The boy said as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He grabbed his dark blue backpack, slinging it over one shoulder, as he caught up with his fox and walked along side him.

"Come on Kurama, you know it was an accident. Besides, that's what happens when you sleep on top of a person." The blond said as he walked down onto the dock. The blond looked at the city with wide eyes and smiled.

"Look out Republic City, here comes Naruto Uzumaki!" The blond yelled, causing people to just stare at him for a moment. He laughed sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. He then heard snickering coming from the direction of his feet. Naruto looked down and saw Kurama looking at him with sly smile.

"Watch it fleabag or you'll be sleeping outside with the rest of the animals!" Naruto snapped as the fox simply rolled its eyes and leaped up to his shoulder where it perched itself. Naruto walked off the docks and into the city. He looked around with awe at the sights. Growing up on an island where the trees were taller than the buildings, Naruto was a little overwhelmed by the big city. However, the sound of his stomach growling soon snapped him out of his wonder. Naruto then realized he had no idea where anything was, such as to be expected when in a new place.

After asking around he found a place called "Narook's Seaweed Noodles."

"Well it might not be ramen, but at least it's food." Naruto said as he entered the restaurant and sat down at a table, setting his backpack in the seat next to him. Not knowing what the place had and not in the mood to look through a menu, Naruto simply ordered a bowl of seaweed noodles. Kurama sat on his shoulder, turning his nose up at the food.

"I know it's not ramen, but you could at least try it. It's not that bad actually." Naruto said as he held a few noodles up to the finicky fox. Kurama just turned his head, causing his master to say,

"Fine, more for me."

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After finishing his food, Naruto paid the bill, but when he went to grab his backpack he saw it was gone.

"What the hell?" Naruto exclaimed as he looked around. He then turned to Kurama and said,

"What good are you if you can't even let me know if someone's stealing my stuff?" The kitsune shrugged with a mischievous gleam in it's eyes. Naruto growled at the fox before running outside to find his stolen property. However before he made into the street, he ran face first into someone. After picking himself up he saw it was a girl that looked around his age. She was clearly Water Tribe, right down to how she was dressed.

"Hey! Watch it!" The girl shouted.

"Sorry!" Naruto yelled as he ran off, leaving the girl standing there.

**LATER THAT NIGHT**

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"Damn it!" The whiskered teen yelled as he collapsed on the sidewalk and leaned back on a building. Kurama curled up in his lap as he sighed.

"Great, just freaking perfect! My first day in Republic City and I get robbed." The blond grumbled.

"Hey you!" Naruto heard someone call from down the street. He saw it was the girl he ran into earlier and she was running up to him. As she got closer, he saw that she was carrying his backpack!

"Narook said you left this under your table." She said as Naruto slapped his forehead for not thinking about it falling off the seat before running off. He heard Kurama snickering and glared at the kitsune.

"Can it you stupid fox!" Naruto snapped, only causing Kurama to continue to snicker at his master's stupidity. Disregarding the kitsune, Naruto turned his attention to the girl.

"Thanks, you would not believe the day I've been having." Naruto said as he took his backpack and slung it over his shoulder.

"It's no problem, after all helping people out is what an Avatar does." The girl said, causing Naruto to stare at her wide eyed.

"You're the Avatar?" The young Avatar smiled and replied,

"Avatar Korra at your service!" The blond gave a small nod of his head and said,

"Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto then put his backpack down and opened it. He then pulled out a camera and said,

"Do you mind if I take a picture with you? If my Granny ever comes to visit I want proof I met the Avatar." Korra laughed a little and said,

"Sure, but how do you plan on being in the picture? No one else is around to hold the camera, unless you've trained your fox to take pictures." Naruto chuckled and replied,

"The only thing that fleabag's good for is eating and sleeping with the occasional prank on me." Korra wondered how a fox was capable of pulling a prank, but didn't dwell on it. Naruto looked over at a small tree growing out of a hole in the sidewalk and smirked. He sat the camera down and stood next to Korra, who was wondering what he thought he was doing. Naruto waved one of his hands back and forth, causing the branches of the tree to move over to the camera and pick it up. Korra was stunned to say the least. Naruto stopped when the camera was centered and said,

"Smile!" As the camera flashed with the blond smiling brightly and Korra with her mouth hanging open.

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**PLEASE REVIEW! **

**Now to clear up some things. No Naruto is not a ninja, but he is from Konoha. I'll go more into this later. Ninjutsu, genjutsu, kekkei genkai's, etc, don't exist in this story as it takes place exclusively in the Avatar universe. Konoha is different than the one from the Naruto universe and I'll go into how next chapter. Yes other Naruto characters will appear, but they'll be adapted to fit in the Avatar-verse. **

**Next chapter Naruto gets a job and makes some new friends!**


	2. Chapter 2

The Woodbender

Legend of Korra and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon. Naruto and all related characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto

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Naruto Uzumaki had been in Republic City for three weeks and was now flat broke. The only real bright spot in his time there was meeting the Avatar, but she was so flabbergasted by the fact he was a woodbender that she asked him more questions than he had ever been asked. The easiest one was why his hair was yellow, the answer being that people from his homeland of Konoha usually had red or blond hair. After talking with her for a while, Korra had to leave.

At any rate the blond had had little luck in finding a job, well at least one that would let him afford a motel bill. He sat on the side of the street, Kurama sitting in his lap as he thought about how he could find a well paying job.

"Okay, so I'm notthe most qualified person for somethings. Still there should be something in this city I could do, right Kurama?" Naruto asked the kitsune, only for the fox to shrug as if to say,

"Don't look at me."

The blond decided to get up, Kurama making his way up to his master's shoulder, and headed down the streets. Soon he walked past Narook's Seaweed Noodles, just as Korra walked out with two boys.

"Naruto?" The young Avatar asked as she noticed the whiskered boy. He turned and smiled, despite the fact he was covered in dirt and hungry as hell, as he walked up to her. The fact that he had been living on the streets wasn't lost on Korra nor her friends as the all shot each other quick glances.

"Hey, long time no see Korra! Been busy?" Naruto said cheerfully, only making Korra feel even sorrier for him.

"Um, yeah being the Avatar's a full time gig. These are my friends, Mako and Bolin." Korra said, introducing the boys.

"I guess she told you guys about me?" The blond asked, having a strong feeling he was right.

"Yeah, she wouldn't stop going on and on about how you bent a tree." Bolin said, causing Korra to elbow him in the side out of embarrassment.

"So, what are you doing Naruto?" Korra asked, already seeing tiredness in his eyes.

"I'm, uh, I'm begging for a job." The blond said, not wanting to lie and hoping Korra and her friends might be able to tell him who's looking to hire.

"Well, you could try the new gym downtown. I heard they're looking for a new maintenance guy." Mako said, trying to lend the other teen a hand. He knew what it was like on the streets, so he had some sympathy for Naruto's situation.

"Well I'm pretty handy, so it's worth a shot. Thanks!" Naruto said as he ran off.

"He has no idea where he's going does he?" Bolin asked no one in particular.

"Nope." Korra deadpanned.

"Should we catch him and tell him?" Mako wondered. After a few seconds Korra said,

"Nah, he'll find it, I mean it's the only gym downtown."

**SIX HOURS LATER**

* * *

"Why didn't you remind me to ask for directions?" Naruto snapped at Kurama. The kitsune just glared and whacked his master upside the head with one of his tails, a clear sign that he believed it wasn't his job to think for him. Naruto sighed as he entered the building, finally finding it. It was dark inside, a clear sign everyone had gone home for the night.

"Ah man! Looks like I'll have to wait until tomorrow!" Naruto said, but just then he saw a light from down the hall. He walked toward it, hearing someone talking as he walked further along.

"If I cannot do 400 sit ups, then I will do 500 push ups!" As Naruto walked into the lighted room he saw a young man, probably in his early twenties, doing sit ups in rapid succession. The young man was wearing a long sleeved tight green Chinese styled shirt with white bandages on his hands that covered his hands, save for his fingers, and went up to his elbows. He also wore tight green pants and wore dark blue kung fu shoies. The young man seemed to notice Naruto's presence as he said,

"What brings you here this late at night? Are you a fellow youthful fighter looking to train?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at the "youthful" part, but quickly disregarded it.

"Um, actually I was looking for a job. I heard you needed a new maintenance guy?" The blond said, really hoping the position was still available. The young man then leaped up, revealing he had a pair of thick bushy eyebrows.

"Well you are in luck my friend! You are the first to apply! I am Rock Lee Beifong(1) and it is a pleasure to meet you!" Lee said as he gave a bright smile and a thumbs up. Naruto almost fell over from shock when he heard the name.

"Y-you're _the _Rock Lee Beifong? The world's greatest martial artist and 12 time champion of the Pro-Fighting circuit?" Naruto asked, starstruck in every sense of the word.

"The one and only!" The bushy browed fighter said. The next thing Naruto knew his head felt lightheaded and things getting darker.

* * *

"Hey! Hey wake up! Come on buddy I want to go home." Naruto heard as he slowly opened his eyes. He saw a girl standing over him. She had brown eyes and brown hair done in two buns on her head. She wore a simple white t-shirt with black pants and sandals. Naruto slowly got up, rubbing his head as he stood up.

"Let me guess, you meet Lee and it was too much for you?" The girl said, obviously annoyed.

"Well I haven't eaten in a few days, so that combined with the excitement of meeting one of my personal heroes was too much for me." Naruto said with a small smirk, despite the fact his head was throbbing and his stomach still ached from a lack of food. The girl's annoyed look softened and said,

"Lee said you wanted the janitor's job, so it's all yours. It comes with a spar room in the back you can use, it's nothing fancy but from the looks of you I doubt you'd mind." Naruto chuckled and a little and said,

"No, I guess not. My name's Naruto by the way. Naruto Uzumaki." The girl smiled and said,

"Nice to meet you, name's Tenten."

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**PLEASE REVIEW!**

**1. Yes, this means what you think it does. **


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